39 minute read
NEWS
The new superintendent of the Waltham Public Schools will be Dr. Brian Reagan of Wilmington Public Schools, according to a Feb. 28 Waltham Wicked Local article. The School Committee voted unanimously for Dr. Reagan, whose intended start date is July 1.
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Dr. Reagan is currently the assistant superintendent for Wilmington Public Schools, according to the article. It also mentioned that he is a graduate of the Waltham School District, having graduated from Waltham High School in 1990.
Waltham has been without a permanent superintendent since Nov. 2018, when the former superintendent of four years, Drew Echelson, announced his resignation, according to a Nov. 7, 2018 Waltham Patch article. It was later reported by a Nov. 8, 2018 Waltham Patch article that Echelson had stepped down in order to take a job at his alma mater, Harvard University.
The interim superintendent is George Frost, according to an April 26, 2019 Waltham Patch article. The article also reported that Frost was previously the human resources administrator for the Waltham Public Schools.
The search previously experienced a complication in November when one of the unannounced finalists unexpectedly withdrew their application, forcing the committee to adjust their timeline, according to a Nov. 22 Waltham Patch article.
The search was then narrowed down to four finalists, including Frank Hackett, Brad Morgan and Sergio Paez, out of which Dr. Reagan was chosen, according to the Waltham Wicked Local article. The same article reported that, although Dr. Reagan will still need to honor his commitment to the Wilmington Public Schools, he will be in Waltham as much as possible over the following months.
—Jason Frank
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CORRECTIONS AND CLARIFICATIONS n An earlier version of a News article incorrectly implied that Elizabeth Nako made a statement, when she had declined to comment. It was corrected to remove this implication (February 11, Page 3).
n Senate Log was ammended to correct the spelling of Trevor Filseth’s name (February 11, Page 2).
n A Features article did not credit the graphics to Creative Commons (Feb. 11, Pg. 8).
The Justice welcomes submissions for errors that warrant correction or clarification. Send an email to editor@thejustice.org.
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The Justice is the independent student newspaper of Brandeis University. The Justice is published every Tuesday of the academic year with the exception of examination and vacation periods.
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POLICE LOG MEDICAL EMERGENCY
Feb. 18 — In Ziv 127, a party reported stomach pain. University Police responded with Cataldo Ambulance staff who treated the party with a signed refusal for further care.
Feb. 24 — A party in the Mandel Center for the Humanities fell down the stairs. BEMCo staff treated the patient, and University Police transported the party to Urgent Care.
Feb. 24 — BEMCo staff treated a party in Spingold Theater who was not feeling well and generally lightheaded with a signed refusal for further care.
Feb. 25 — A party in Village C called BEMCo for a nosebleed. They were treated with a signed refusal for further care.
Feb. 25 — At 60 Turner Street, a party had a seizure. BEMCo and University Police responded and the party was transported to Newton-Wellesley Hospital via Cataldo Ambulance for further care.
Feb. 27 — A party in Ziv 130 reported suffering from hives. BEMCo staff treated the patient and Cataldo Ambulance transported the party to Newton-Wellesley Hospital for further care.
Feb. 27 — BEMCo treated a party with a knee laceration in the Humanities Quad with a signed refusal for further care.
Feb. 28 — In Gordon Hall, BEMCo responded to a party who was intoxicated. Cataldo Ambulance transported the patient to Newton-Wellesley Hospital for further care. The Area Coordinator on call was notified and a Community Standards Report was filed.
Feb. 29 — A caller in Cable Hall stated that a party was intoxicated and vomiting. BEMCo and University Police arrived on the scene. Cataldo Ambulance transported the party to Newton-Wellesley Hospital for further care. The Area Coordinator on call was notified and a Community Standards Report was filed.
Feb. 29 — A party came to the University Police station complaining of a possible concussion while playing sports. BEMCo checked out the party and requested transportation. Cataldo Ambulance transported the party to Newton-Wellesley Hospital for further care.
The Area Coordinator on call was notified.
Feb. 29 — At 567 South Street, a party reported not feeling well and BEMCo was called. Cataldo Ambulance transported the party to Newton-Wellesley Hospital for further care. The Area Coordinator on call was notified.
March 1 — A non-student party in Rosenthal North was intoxicated. BEMCo staff responded and the party was transported to Newton-Wellesley Hospital for further care.
March 1 — In Village A, a party was not feeling well. BEMCo staff treated the party with a signed refusal for further care.
LARCENY
Feb. 17 — A party in the Shapiro Campus Center reported items missing from an unlocked area since January. University Police compiled a report on the incident.
Feb. 27 — In the Mandel Center for the Humanities, a staff member reported a missing purse from a common area. University Police compiled a report on the incident.
Feb. 27 — A party in Kutz Hall reported a missing wallet. University Police compiled a report. The reporting party was advised the next day that the wallet was recovered.
DISTURBANCE
Feb. 17 — There was a report of loud music in the Charles River Apartments. University Police spoke to the residents who lowered the volume without incident.
Feb. 19 — A party in the Charles River apartments contacted the University Police stating there was loud “heavy metal” playing. University Police spoke to the residents and advised them to lower their music which they did without incident. Police notified the Area Coordinator on call who followed up with the residents.
Feb. 22 — Loud music was reported in the Charles River Apartments. Occupants were advised by University Police to lower their music without incident.
Feb. 23 — A party in the Charles River Apartments reported that someone below her apartment was having a verbal altercation. University Police compiled a report on the incident. Department of Community Living staff were on scene to assist.
Feb. 25 — University Police responded to the Charles River Apartments for a noise complaint and spoke to the residents.
Feb. 28 — Upon receiving a report for a noise complaint in Ridgewood C, University Police requested the Area Coordinator on call for assistance. No police action was taken.
Feb. 29 — A noise complaint in the Charles River Apartment was reported. The Area Coordinator on call spoke with the individuals who registered the party.
Feb. 29 — In Rosenthal North, there was a noise complaint on the fourth floor. University Police checked the area, but all was quiet upon arrival.
Feb. 29 — A party reported a car playing loud music in the Charles River Apartments. University Police responded, but the vehicle had already departed the area.
HARASSMENT
Feb. 19 — A party in the Heller School of Social Policy and Management reported being harassed via phone messages from an unknown caller. University Police compiled a report on the incident.
Feb. 26 — A community member off campus reported to the University Police of an incident of a possible peeping person. The Waltham Police are conducting further investigations.
VANDALISM
Feb. 24 — Graffiti was discovered in the lower level of Lown Center for Judaic Studies. University Police compiled a report on the incident and facilities staff were advised to remove it.
DRUGS
Feb. 24 — DCL staff confiscated drug paraphernalia from a party in Massell Quad. University Police took custody of the item and compiled a report.
—Compiled by Jen Geller
Senate announces amendment, discusses campus transportation SENATE LOG
The Senate met for its weekly meeting on Sunday, where it discussed an amendment to grant funding to exclusive clubs and brainstormed solutions for problems with campus transportation.
CHARTERS AND DECHARTERS
Period@Brandeis previously had a probationary club status, and the Club Support Committee voted to keep Period@Brandeis’ probationary status for another 12 weeks. post bins will be distributed on a sign-up basis.
INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY SENATE MONEY RESOLUTION
Social Justice and Diversity Committee Chair Priyata Bhatta ’22 introduced an SMR to buy a poster and postcards for an International Women’s Day tabling event. The Senate voted to suspend the rules, and voted by acclamation to pass the SMR.
EXECUTIVE OFFICER REPORTS
The Lyft subsidy will be launching as soon as the Department of Student Activities signs the contract with the company, said Union Vice President Kendal Chapman ’22. The subsidy will apply to rides to and from campus, and will cover $5 off the original ride.
Illanysh Rodriguez ’23, the unconfirmed director of outreach, resigned because “she had a lot on her plate,” Chapman reported.
COMMITTEE CHAIR REPORTS
Dining Committee Chair Nancy Zhai ’22 said that the committee would be tabling for Dining Employee Appreciation Day on Monday and Tuesday. The committee will table in Sherman Dining Hall on Monday and in Lower Usdan the following day. The presentations for the final four dining vendors in the running for the University’s new dining contract will take place on Wednesday and Thursday.
Community Emergency and Enhancement Fund Chair Krupa Sourirajan ’23 encouraged senators to promote SipChip, a chip designed to test for daterape drugs which she called “one of our most successful CEEF initiatives.”
Health and Safety Committee Chair Leah Fernandez ’22 reported that free menstrual products will be distributed to bathrooms around campus within the next two weeks, and that she may apply for CEEF funding to cover future batches of these products. She will also be meeting with Vice Provost of Student Affairs Raymond Ou to discuss the Plan B machine. The machine ran out of Plan B and other products long ago, but there is a stockpile of Plan B waiting to be put in the machine that hasn’t been put in because the Union has been unable to schedule a meeting with Facilities Services.
Senate Sustainability Committee Chair Oliver Price ’20 announced that the committee will be distributing compost bins to the Foster Mods. These comEXCLUSIVE CLUB CHARTERING AMENDMENT Club Support Committee Chair Joseph Coles ’22 introduced an amendment to allow funding for acapella and comedy groups that were previously denied funds because of their “exclusive nature” since these groups require prospective members to audition for roles. The funding would cover on-campus performances, for which the groups currently have to fundraise to hold. “Oftentimes when they’re performing, they’re performing at a loss,” Coles said.
The funding would not cover offcampus performances or competitions because the Brandeis community would ostensibly not benefit from these performances. Several senators expressed concerns about the clubs’ abilities to pay for these off-campus competitions, to which Coles replied that the rationale behind this amendment was to “start small,” and eventually propose greater funding privileges for these clubs.
The Senate tabled the resolution until next week’s meeting.
TRANSPORTATION PROJECT
The Senate will be launching a project to improve transportation services on campus, including implementing improvements to the BranVan and the Market Basket and Boston/Cambridge shuttles. The Senate discussed the possibility of expanding hours for the Market Basket and Boston shuttles, putting reservation numbers on the Branda App and signage in Waltham for BranVan stops.
SENATOR REPORTS
Sourirajan reported that the Area Coordinator for North Quad Josh Adlerman has stepped down and will be leaving within the week. She will be working with the Department of Community Living in the wake of Adlerman’s departure.
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Brandeis Climate Justice participated in a Fossil Fuel Divestment Day rally in tandem with over 50 universities across the U.S. on Feb. 13. Both students and faculty spoke at the event, demanding that the University immediately divest from direct holdings in the fossil fuel industry and withdraw all indirect investments by 2022, according to a BCJ press release.
BCJ member Zoë Pringle ’22 said in a Feb. 27 interview with the Justice that the rally was a way to make the group’s efforts visible to students, faculty and staff. “The Board of Trustees is very much aware of our presence, but if they know that the larger community cares about this, then they will maybe make the switch,” she said.
Julia Plaisted ’23 of BCJ explained in a Feb. 27 interview with the Justice that Brandeis has invested an estimated $70 million in the fossil fuel industry. While the University announced last year that it would withdraw from all direct investments in the fossil fuel industry, Plaisted said its decision to keep indirect holdings is unacceptable.
Indirect investments, she said, are extremely complicated and significantly harder to pull out from than direct holdings. Other than the Board of Trustees, no one knows how much money is funneled into the fossil fuel industry. Plaisted explained that this lack of transparency “feels like the University is trying to hide something from its students. It’s our money, we should know what’s being done with it.”
Seeing as the issue of climate change is bigger than just BCJ, Plaisted said that involving faculty and other student organizations was crucial. “Climate change affects every single walk of life, every single person,” she said. “Every single field of study is impacted and is going to be impacted by climate change.”
Josh Benson ’23, a member of the Brandeis Leftist Union, formerly Brandeis for Bernie, was one of the student speakers at the rally. In a Feb. 28 interview with the Justice, Benson explained that when looking at issues like the U.S. military’s extensive contribution to pollution or the Brazilian government’s burning of the Amazon, the environment is very much a political issue.
For his speech, Benson noted that discussing non-represented or historically marginalized voices is a means of addressing issues of climate justice that are often ignored. Acknowledging that we are on stolen land and that our country was built off slavery, he said, demonstrates that “climate injustices often intersect with issues of imperialism and capitalism.”
In addition to Benson from the Brandeis Leftist Union, Brandeis student representatives from the Sunrise Movement and Dissenters spoke at the rally.
Pringle added that including varied student perspectives was crucial to spreading the rally’s message to a wider audience. “Sometimes I overestimate that everyone has climate anxiety or that everyone feels this overwhelming urge to stop climate change,” Pringle said.
Student speakers represented a movement of young people deeply invested in their future, Plaisted said, adding that the “people who spoke were so passionate … I don’t believe in the concept of a lazy teenager.”
In addition to passionate students, according to Pringle, there has also been an increase in professors from unrelated subjects becoming involved in the climate movement. Plaisted explained that faculty involvement shows the University that the movement “isn’t just some students complaining. It is also their hired employees saying, ‘we are sick of this.’”
Prof. Gordon Fellman (SOC) was one of the professors who spoke at the rally, claiming that “people need to understand that we are facing a crisis greater than the Second World War. The Second World War destroyed a lot of people, but not the planet,” according to an audio clip posted by WBUR.
Aside from engaging with the Brandeis community, this rally joined a national network of students demanding divestment from their institutions. Accompanying schools like Stanford, Harvard and MIT, Plaisted explained that seeing “Brandeis students as being as devoted as students who are seen as the top of their field really brought Brandeis up in my eyes.”
Pringle added that the community of schools in the movement truly lets universities “learn from each others’ strategies, successes and failures.” ■ Brandeis students joined activists at institutions across the country for Fossil Fuel Divestment Day. By LEEZA BARSTEIN JUSTICE EDITORIAL ASSISTANT Student activists rally for fossil fuel divestment at University Letters reveal tensions between love and politics CAMPUS EVENT Senate Facilities and Housing Committee Chair Trevor Filseth ’20 reported at the Feb. 9 Senate meeting that a ceiling had collapsed in East Quad, based on information he received from Class of 2022 Senator Joshua Feld. However, no such event ever occurred.
The alleged incident came up during Filseth’s committee chair report when he listed the cave-in among a number of issues about which he would speak with Assistant Dean of Student Affairs Tim Touchette. He specified that “there was an issue on, I think it was the fourth floor of East, the ceiling had caved in right there.”
At the time Filseth reported the cave-in, he had never seen the damage and “only [knew] what Josh told me, and he said Facilities was on it,” he wrote in a message to the Justice on Feb. 10. Feld confirmed in a message to the Justice on Wednesday that he believed “Brandeis facilities was on top of this issue right away,” but Facilities Services denied this claim.
“To our knowledge there was no reported ceiling cave in at East,” wrote Associate Director of Campus Services Joseph Realejo in an email to the Justice on Thursday.
After several inquiries from the Justice, Feld said on Wednesday that “multiple people” had reached out to him about a “ceiling issue,” but declined to specify the people involved or comment further for the story.
When Filseth later spoke with Touchette about the issue, Touchette reportedly said that “there wasn’t a cave-in, it seems to have just been a rumor like the Deroy mold thing last semester,” Filseth wrote in a message to the Justice on Wednesday. In a separate statement emailed to the Justice the next day, Touchette wrote, “I’m not sure where this story came from. It is not true at all. There is no ceiling collapse.”
Eight residents of East Quad, including Head Community Advisor for East Quad and Skyline Domingo Fortuna ’20, told the Justice on Wednesday that they had not heard about a ceiling collapse, suggesting that the “rumor” had not spread beyond conversations between senators and the administration.
Though they had not heard about the alleged cave-in, almost all of the residents and administrators interviewed by the Justice mentioned another ceiling problem in East Quad.
“There was a fire alarm that went off [on Feb. 21] due to a leak in a steam pipe. The leak affected two students who we are in the process of assisting with a room move, as well as repair and replacement of damaged items. The ceiling in that room, as well as the rest of the building, was not affected,” wrote Area Coordinator for East and Skyline Katherine Mandel in an email to the Justice on Wednesday.
—Noah Zeitlin contributed reporting —Editor’s Note: Trevor Filseth is a Forum staff writer. DIVEST AT DEIS: University students and faculty rallied on Feb. 18 in part of the nationwide protest Fossil Fuel Divestment Day to encourage that universities divest from fossil fuel holdings. Over 50 campuses participated in this day of action.
CAMERON CUSHING/the Justice EXPLORING LOST LOVE: Profs. Rajesh Sampath (left) and Samantha Rose Hill read the love letters between political theorist Hannah Arendt and philosopher Martin Heidegger during the event “On Reconcilliation” at the Rose Art Museum on Feb. 14. NOAH ZEITLIN/the Justice
■ The event examined the love story and letters between a Nazi philosopher and a German Jewish political theorist.
By ARI ALBERTSON JUSTICE PRODUCTION ASSISTANT
Profs. Samantha Rose Hill, assistant director of the Hannah Arendt Center for Politics and Humanities and a visiting assistant professor of Politics at Bard College, and Rajesh Sampath, associate professor of the Philosophy of Justice, Rights, and Social Change at the Heller School of Social Policy and Management, read and discussed letters between political theorist Hannah Arendt and philosopher Martin Heidegger during the event “On Reconciliation” at the Rose Art Museum. The discussion was facilitated by artist Dora García and Senior Curator-at-Large Ruth Estévez on Feb. 14.
Hill and Sampath took turns reading from the letters, facsimiles of which were on display at the museum, in a presentation that lasted approximately 30 minutes. The letters span 50 years, from the 1920s through the 1970s, and touch on the romantic and intellectual relationship between Heidegger and Arendt.
Heidegger was a groundbreaking philosopher of metaphysics and ontology, or the study of being, and a member of the Nazi party in Germany during Hitler’s reign. Arendt was a German Jew who was forced to flee Germany in 1933 when Heidegger began implementing Nazi policies at the University of Freiburg, where Arendt was his student. Arendt wrote prolifically on totalitarianism, thinking and modernity, and reported on the trial of the Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann. To begin the post-reading discussion, Hill said that the relationship with Heidegger “played a very large role in the life and work” of Arendt, but that because Heidegger prioritized his work and his wife over Arendt, a “gap” always existed between them. After their romantic relationship ended, Heidegger remained a mentor to Arendt, and in later years would invite her to have meals with him and his wife and discuss each other’s work.
Sampath expressed the tension he feels in relation to Heidegger. Sampath said that he has an “obsession as a scholar and a thinker” with Heidegger, but is at the same time disgusted by what he called Heidegger’s “embodiment of evil” and the “antipathy [he] had toward the human being.”
García said that especially in the midst of the #MeToo movement, many people wonder how to deal with “despicable” men who create great work. “The big question,” García said, is whether Heidegger “was a Nazi and a good philosopher, or he was a Nazi and a Nazi philosopher as well, and what do we do with that?” Hill said that Arendt was “radically dedicated to plurality” and understanding different ways of thinking, and thus Arendt wanted to understand how a great thinker such as Heidegger could become a Nazi. Arendt believed that his engagement with philosophy “turned him away from the world, it blinded him,” Hill said.
In one letter, Arendt said that she did not feel like a Jewish woman, and an audience member asked how Arendt could renounce her own identity. Hill explained that Arendt did not renounce her identity, and worked exclusively for Jewish organizations when she left Germany, but she was “profoundly counterposed to any form of identity politics” and did not want to assign meaning to an identity that for her was just “a fact of life.”
Similarly, Arendt saw love and politics as completely separate. Arendt believed that it is impossible to “ground a politics of solidarity on love,” Hill said. Love, Arendt believed, “turns us away from the world,” while politics should see and address the world as it is. In fact, she called love “the most powerful of all anti-political forces.”
Another audience member asked why Hill and Sampath alternated reading from Heidegger’s and Arendt’s letters rather than each sticking to one side of the correspondence. García said that it was a dramaturgical choice intended to keep listeners from associating the reader with the “character” of either Arendt or Heidegger.
The letter reading and discussion was part of Garcia’s exhibition, “Love with Obstacles,” which will be on display through May 17 in the Lois Foster Gallery.
■ The changes, which include more food options, are a reaction to student feedback about dining services.
By JOCELYN GOULD JUSTICE EDITOR
Students returning to campus this spring semester may have noticed new options in their dining halls. These changes, enacted in response to student satisfaction survey results, were rolled out on Jan. 6. The overall cost of campus dining has not changed, according to Brandeis Dining Services’ General Manager Andy Allen in a Feb. 20 interview with the Justice.
Changes to dining hall options
Sherman Dining Hall, which underwent the most changes this semester, has new stir fry and miso soup stations, as well as an expanded salad bar and a power greens station, Allen explained. The Sherman salad bar also now often serves grapes or blueberries. Usdan Dining Hall has seen more minor changes, Allen said, which include increased stir fry options and reworked menus. Other changes detailed in a Brandeis Dining press release include an all-day salad bar and more variety of breakfast food offerings. The redesigned Stein menu also launched this semester, with more vegetarian options and new offerings, although this was a longer-term project than many of the other changes.
The process of altering campus dining options varies by the scale and complexity of the changes, Director of University Services Jeff Hershberger explained in a Feb. 24 interview with the Justice. Major adjustments, such as to meal plan pricing, are made through addendums to the University’s dining contract, which are generally signed in July or August. The University will fund other large changes, such as those involving equipment or dining venues, but the dining contractor has “leeway” for smaller purchases.
The recent dining changes have not affected the overall cost of dining, Allen said in the same interview. To accomplish this, Sodexo uses a technique called “menu engineering,” Allen explained. Menu engineering “is an empirical way to evaluate restaurant menu pricing” that “involves categorizing all menu items … based on the profitability and popularity of each item,” according to a Feb. 20 Toast article. It is traditionally used to increase restaurant profits, but Brandeis Dining uses the methodology to adjust how they spend their existing budget on the food served in dining halls.
The idea is to design a menu that balances expensive food items with cheaper ones so that dining does not have to purchase large quantities of expensive options. Allen gave the example of serving salmon — an expensive dish — on the same day as mac and cheese — a popular, but inexpensive alternative — to keep overall costs low. “It’s really about creating options to influence your choices, and … the collective amount you’re spending,” Allen explained.
Hershberger confirmed that no new equipment was purchased by the University for these changes, that they did not involve an addendum and that the overall cost of dining to the University had not changed.
Sodexo did make small purchases to accommodate these changes. For instance, they purchased new pans to increase the variety of options available at the Sherman salad bar display. Allen confirmed in a Feb. 25 email to the Justice that this purchase was “self-funded.”
Dining employment
Dining employment has also not drastically changed as a result of these changes, Allen said. Although they hired a few new employees, for instance to operate the stir fry station, “overall, we have a great union team, and it’s about just spreading the work out,” he said. In the same email to the Justice, Allen wrote, “Any labor changes to operations are internal to our group.”
“I do know that a lot of the changes at Sherman had an impact on labor,” Hershberger confirmed, explaining that some people were moved around as stations were added.
Reorganizing how labor is shared between workers “is no small thing to people whose ability to support themselves and their families is contingent upon maintaining the salary and hours they fought for during last year’s contract negotiations,” Jenni Corwin ’22, a student activist and a member of campus organizations involved in campaigning for better dining, said in a Feb. 27 email to the Justice.
Brandeis Labor Coalition declined to comment on the impact of these changes.
Reacting to the student feedback
Since these changes have been made within the existing dining contract and have not adjusted overall cost, members of the Brandeis community may wonder why they are just being made now. These changes were made in response to, and guided by, the 2019 results of Sodexo’s annual dining satisfaction survey, Allen said. The survey was administered between Oct. 21 and Nov. 2, 2019, and received 469 responses, according to the Sodexo press release.
Student satisfaction with Sherman Non-Kosher ranked at only 54%, compared to 64% for Lower Usdan and 74% for Sherman Kosher, per the release. All other dining locations on campus earned above 75% student satisfaction. Allen pointed to the low score for Sherman non-Kosher to explain why that location had received the bulk of the changes.
Brandeis Dining Marketing Specialist Emily Baksa, who joined Allen for the Feb. 20 interview, explained that these annual surveys are a cumulative process. She joined the University three years ago and has conducted the three most recent surveys. “This was the year I felt like ‘Okay, I really feel like I understand what the themes [of student responses] are and what our opportunities are,’” she said.
Additionally, Baksa, Allen and Hershberger all stressed the importance of the Senate Dining Committee in guiding these changes and dining improvements in general. Allen cited the increased engagement with the committee as “the biggest difference this year” in getting student feedback. “Most colleges, if you can get two or three students to show up to a dining committee once a month, you consider yourself lucky. We meet weekly and we have a very vibrant group of students, and we also bring most of the management team.”
Senator-at-Large Nancy Zhai ’22, chair of the Dining Committee, sees her committee as “liaisons” for the student body. “We work together with Brandeis Dining to create changes, while also holding them accountable in ensuring that students’ major concerns are seriously considered, properly addressed and actively resolved,” she wrote in a Feb. 24 statement to the Justice. She highlighted the committee’s impact in the areas of vegan and vegetarian options, availability of cultural foods and accurate allergen information.
“As a chef, I’ve worked in restaurants and hotels, and college dining is by far the most difficult,” Allen said. People don’t go to restaurants more than a few times a week, but “we’re asking students to pay three months of restaurant food in advance, and then not get bored.” Brandeis is “the most challenging environment” Allen has worked in, with the combination of Kosher and non-Kosher dining and “folks who have some very strong feelings about what they’d like to eat,” he said.
Both Baksa and Allen see Sodexo as improving its relationship with the Brandeis community and building “momentum” in addressing community concerns. Baksa encouraged students to continue to give feedback, emphasizing the importance of hearing from the student body. Students are increasingly providing feedback, she said, which she sees as a sign that students are starting to “trust the system” and recognize that their feedback is heard. Students can provide feedback on Brandeis dining social media, as well as through text and online forms.
Hershberger agreed with Baksa and Allen’s assessment that there is a “stronger partnership” with Sodexo than in the past.
The context: a new contract looms
All of these changes occur within the context of the University’s search for its next dining contractor. The University and Sodexo “mutually agreed in September [2019] to end Sodexo’s current contract three years early,” per a Nov. 5, 2019 Justice article. Sodexo is currently competing to earn the next contract, which will begin on July 1.
The University laid out what it wants from the next dining contract in its Request for Proposals, which was crafted through community feedback in the fall and winter.
The University has narrowed the search down to four vendors — Sodexo, Bon Appetit, Harvest Table, and Chartwells. This week, on March 4 and 5, these vendors will visit campus and make their case for being the University’s next contractor.
Hershberger said the University is “keeping an eye on the ball” to make sure that the priorities in the RFP are addressed in the vendor presentations and in the new contract. He did caution, however, that it’s “too early to tell what we can afford and what we can’t afford.”
He also emphasized the importance of the personality of the contractor’s management team and the relationship they will form with the University community. RFP presentations are normally done by companies’ sales teams, he explained, but Brandeis has asked “for their proposed management team to have the bulk of the presentation time” instead. The goal of this is to see how these leadership teams interact with students and engage them for feedback.
Remaining concerns
Hershberger, Baksa and Allen stated that the student response to these new changes has been positive. However, student concerns remain.
“A multinational corporation with a market capitalization of over $20 billion should not be asking for accolades because they ceded to a few requests made by our student body, who are forced to pay thousands a year for their meal plans in order to live on campus,” Corwin wrote in an email to the Justice. “Additionally, while I do appreciate the updates made to Sherman, stir fry does not absolve Sodexo of neglecting to acknowledge larger, more pressing student demands,” she added, calling for a guarantee of worker retention in the new dining contract and the University cutting ties with Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The Brandeis branch of Uprooted and Rising is a campaign calling for Brandeis to switch to in-house dining instead of signing a new contract with an outsourced dining company. The group raises concerns that the companies that are competing for the new contract “will always be connected to atrocities in the world, like the burning of the Amazon rainforest and the exploitation of immigrant labor,” as well as underpaying employees and providing over-priced and low-quality food, per a statement from the organization that was shared with the Justice. In the statement, the group argues that their feedback during the RFP process has been ignored.
justBRIEFS
Three senators elected in latest Union special election
The Student Union held a special election on Feb. 13 to select two Community Senators and the International Senator. The Community Senators will replace the two Class of 2021 senators and the Ziv and Ridgewood Quad Senator, as no students ran for those positions in previous special elections. Shivam Nainwal ’22 and Tyler Carruth ’23 won their elections for Community Senators, and Chloe Yu ’22 won her election for International Senator. All of the candidates ran unopposed. In the election for Community Senator, students cast a total of 187 votes. Carruth received 36% of votes, followed by Nainwal with 32% of the vote, while 16.5% expressed a vote of no confidence, 9% of voters chose to abstain and 5% selected ‘other.’ Yu earned 70% of the 20 votes received, while 20% of voters indicated a vote of no confidence and 10% abstained.
The Justice reached out to the elected senators for a statement. Nainwal commented that he is “very excited to use my new position to give a voice to the concerns of the students of Brandeis University.” Nainwal’s goals include improving the housing system on campus and the relationship between Brandeis and its food provider.
In a previous interview with the Justice on Feb. 11, Carruth and Yu shared their primary goals. Carruth said that as senator, his goals will include improving communication between the Union and students and developing relationships with senators from other quads while also coordinating with other on-campus clubs to create accessible campus-wide activities. Yu told the Justice that she will focus on further integrating the domestic and international student populations.
—Hannah O’Koon
Suspicious man sighted on South Street
Waltham Police reported a sighting of a suspicious individual looking through the window of an apartment on South Street on Wednesday, according to an email from Director of Public Safety Edward M. Callahan.
Several community members reported seeing this individual look through the open blinds of a window early on Wednesday, according to the email. No further description of the individual has been provided, and the Waltham Police are currently investigating the situation, the email said. According to the Waltham Police records, the incident was reported around 12:30 a.m. on Wednesday.
Callahan advised students living off campus to lock the windows and doors to their residences and to close their blinds. Students should report broken locks to their landlords immediately and should report suspicious incidents to the Waltham Police if they are off campus and to Public Safety if they are on campus, Callahan said in the email. He also reminded students of the availability of campus transportation services, which include shuttles around campus and Waltham.
Callahan said he had no further information in a follow-up email to the Justice on Friday, but said that the matter was still under investigation and directed inquiries to the Waltham Police. A Waltham Police officer said in a phone interview Friday that he could not share anything more about the incident with anyone outside of the Brandeis Police Department.
HARRY POTTER ALLIANCE DISCUSSION
VERA SHANG/the Justice A POWERFUL FILM: (From left to right) Raanan Rein, Adrian Krupnik, and Tali Flomenhoft discussed the role of Zionism in Latin American Jewish communities. Documentary depicts Jewish experience in Argentina
■ After the screening, a panel discussed the Jewish diaspora in Latin America.
By LEEZA BARSTEIN JUSTICE EDITORIAL ASSISTANT
The Schusterman Center for Israel Studies hosted a screening of “Next Year in Argentina,” a film about Argentina’s Jewish diaspora, on Feb. 12. Dalia Wassner, the director of the Hadassah-Brandeis Institute project on Latin American Jewish and Gender Studies, led a panel following the film with Raanan Rein, the vice president of Tel Aviv University, Tali Flomenhoft, the associate director of Parent and Family Giving at Brandeis and Adrian Krupnik, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Tel Aviv.
Argentina has the largest Jewish diaspora in all of Latin America, Wassner explained, which has resulted in Israel’s Latin American population being primarily comprised of Argentinian Jews. Between 1963 and 2002, Krupnik noted that Israel took in several waves of immigrants from Argentina. This mass movement to Israel was followed by a surge of return migration to Argentina, which Krupnik said caused great tensions between Israeli press, officials and migrants.
“Next Year in Argentina” documents the story of the Jewish-Argentine diaspora’s struggle with the decision to stay in Argentina or move to Israel in the midst of Argentinian social and economic turmoil. Following events such as the 1992 bombing of the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires and the 1994 bombing of a Buenos Aires Jewish community center, the documentary discusses JewishArgentine migration, identity and Zionism.
According to the Jewish Virtual Library, Zionism is the “national movement for the return of the Jewish people to their homeland and the resumption of Jewish sovereignty in the Land of Israel.”
Rein explained that Zionism allowed for many Argentinian Jews to better assimilate within a country consisting of many immigrant diasporas. With each successive diaspora having a connection to a different “motherland,” Rein said that for Jews, connecting “with the ancient mythical homeland was a way to become Argentine, like everyone else in the immigrant society of Argentina.” At the Tel Aviv premiere of the film in 2005, Rein noted that the expression of Zionism in the documentary was a point of contention for viewers. In fact, some audience members flagrantly condemned the directors for not being Zionist enough and “by extension, not Jewish enough.” He explained that this wave of hostility stems from a failure on the part of Israelis to understand that everyone’s identity consists of a “mosaic of components.” Whether these components are ethnic or religious, some identity components take precedence over others, “thus influenc[ing] the decision to move to Israel or go back to Argentina.”
Criticism for not being “Zionist enough,” however, extends far past the filmmakers and is often directed towards Jewish Argentines who returned to Argentina following their move to Israel, Rein said. Krupnik added that at the time of the events shown in the documentary, leaving Israel was seen as akin to committing treason. In his interviews with returnees, Krupnik noted that many individuals still felt great shame over leaving Israel; some even cried when discussing their return to Argentina. Rather than shaming or viewing these individuals as a “failure” of Israel, Rein suggested to view them as a “constant negotiation between Israel and the diaspora.” Many returnees have even positively influenced relations between Israel and Argentina, he said.
Krupnik then looked at the film through a gendered lens, noting that blaming women for return migration to Israel was “compatible with Zionist discourse.” He explained that many Zionists painted Latin American women as lazy “Jewish princesses” who were unwilling to give up their lives of luxury in Argentina to live in Israel. Rather than studying immigration patterns, many Zionists used women’s unwillingness to partake in domestic labor as an explanation of low migration rates to Israel.
Flomenhoft shared how her experience growing up as a Mexican-Israeli differed from the experiences of Argentinian Jews. The Mexican-Jewish community is a “community of communities,” she said. Unlike in the United States, Flomenhoft explained; within various ethnic communities living in Mexico, there is further division into many smaller sub-groups. Growing up attending a Zionist school, Flomenhroft said she was introduced to the importance of Israel to the Jewish people and “aliyah [immigration to Israel] as being the ultimate goal of the youth movement.”
University further restricts travel due to coronavirus HEALTH UPDATE
■ Travel to Italy, Iran, South Korea and mainland China is now restricted in response to the coronavirus.
By JEN GELLER JUSTICE EDITOR
Provost Lisa Lynch announced new travel restrictions regarding Italy, Iran and South Korea and their corresponding travel advisory levels in two updates sent to the Brandeis community this past week. A follow up email from the Brandeis Health Center also announced a website that deals with the University’s response to the new coronavirus.
The COVID-19, short for Coronavirus Disease 2019, is more commonly known as the coronavirus. “Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has changed the travel advisory for Korea on Feb. 24 to ‘Level 3, Avoid Nonessential Travel—Widespread Community Transmission,’” Lynch wrote in a Feb. 26 email. At the time, China was the only other country with this level of travel advisory in place, while Italy and Japan were considered to be at “Level 2,” meaning that people should “Practice Enhanced Precautions” when travelling to these countries.
This warning was a recommendation specifically for older adults and those who have chronic medical conditions to avoid travelling to those countries. Within Italy, officials had restricted travel in certain areas in the northern parts of the country. As of Wednesday, the University expanded its prior ban on travel to mainland China to also include South Korea. Lynch added that although the ban is technically for official University business, “we strongly recommend that those who are planning travel to Korea or China for personal reasons reconsider such plans.” She said that bans will not be lifted until it is safe to do so in accordance with guidance from the United States State Department and the CDC.
However, the state fo the virus changed on Friday as the CDC upgraded Iran and Italy to “Level 3” warnings. Lynch announced in a follow-up email on March 1 that “we are restricting all Brandeis students, faculty, and staff from traveling on official university business to Italy, Iran, South Korea and mainland China.” She encouraged students who are within 14 days of travel in Italy, Iran and South Korea to selfmonitor their symptoms. If they have a fever, cough or difficulty breathing over that time period, Lynch said, students should contact the Brandeis Health Center.
Administrative Director of the Health Center and Nurse Practitioner Diana Denning elaborated in an email to the Justice on Feb. 27 that the University’s health center is “following guidelines from [the] CDC for screening, testing, transportation, quarantine etc. The school has protocols for supporting quarantine and isolation if needed and [the] CDC has posted helpful guidelines on that as well. We have been and continue to work with MDPH [W]altham DPH and local emergency providers.”
The new website serves as a “central location” to find information about the outbreak and updates, per the March 2 email from the Health Center. Among other steps, Brandeis is “prepared to provide housing and other care should students need to quarantine or isolate on campus,” per the Health Center’s website.
The March email also informed students that “Any student who needs emotional support should contact the Brandeis Counseling Center.” It also reiterated that the University is committed to maintaining a fair environment for its students, calling bias and discrimination toward those who “observers think may be” from regions that were disproportionately affected by COVID-19 an “unfortunate aspect” of the illness.
In a Feb. 28 email to the Justice, Associate Dean of Study Abroad J. Scott Van Der Meid discussed how the Office of Study Abroad is monitoring the situation around the world. He said that as the situation around the world evolves, there is a possibility that a program may be suspended by one of Brandeis’ partners.
“Should a program decide to suspend operations for the semester, we will work with students to consider alternate means to maintain academic progress following the options set out by their respective programs or universities,” he wrote.
Van Der Meid said that the OSA “works closely and communicates frequently with its affiliate program partners abroad (program providers and host universities) to continuously monitor this fluid situation.” Program partners have been updating Brandeis and the students abroad with information regarding health and safety measures, as well as precautions that need to be taken. In addition, Van Der Meid said that the University has been in touch with students should they want to connect further. There has been an emphasis on communication with students in affected areas, this week in particular with students in South Korea and Italy.
“We are closely monitoring the situation in Japan as some programs do not start their semester until the end of March,” Van Der Meid said. The OSA has a website page with updates about COVID-19 and its effects on study abroad.
“Please remember to treat each other with extra care, concern and respect as we all navigate this situation together as a community,” the Health Center email concluded.
In her March 1 email, Lynch said that University leaders will be “communicating daily and meeting weekly to monitor the situation, refine short- and longterm contingency plans, and respond rapidly to emerging issues related to the coronavirus.”
In an email to her subscribers, Congresswoman Katherine Clark of the 5th District of Massachusetts where Brandeis is located said she is “working with her collegues in the House of Representatives to advance a strategic funding package that fully addresses the scale of this growing public health concern.”
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